Jeremiah 4:19–31

Sorrow for the Doomed Nation

¹⁹O my ^asoul, my soul!

I am pained in my very heart!

My heart makes a noise in me;

I cannot hold my peace,

Because you have heard, O my soul,

The sound of the trumpet,

The alarm of war.

^20bDestruction upon destruction is cried,

For the whole land is plundered.

Suddenly ^cmy tents are plundered,

And my curtains in a moment.

²¹How long will I see the ⁶standard,

And hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²“For My people are foolish,

They have not known Me.

They are ⁷silly children,

And they have no understanding.

^dThey are wise to do evil,

But to do good they have no knowledge.”

^23eI beheld the earth, and indeed it was ^fwithout form, and void;

And the heavens, they had no light.

^24gI beheld the mountains, and indeed they trembled,

And all the hills moved back and forth.

²⁵I beheld, and indeed there was no man,

And ^hall the birds of the heavens had fled.

²⁶I beheld, and indeed the fruitful land was a ⁱwilderness,

And all its cities were broken down

At the presence of the Lord,

By His fierce anger.

²⁷For thus says the Lord:

“The whole land shall be desolate;

^jYet I will not make a full end.

²⁸For this ^kshall the earth mourn,

And ^lthe heavens above be black,

Because I have spoken.

I have ^mpurposed and ⁿwill not relent,

Nor will I turn back from it.

²⁹The whole city shall flee from the noise of the horsemen and bowmen.

They shall go into thickets and climb up on the rocks.

Every city shall be forsaken,

And not a man shall dwell in it.

³⁰“And when you are plundered,

What will you do?

Though you clothe yourself with crimson,

Though you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,

^oThough you enlarge your eyes with paint,

In vain you will make yourself fair;

^pYour lovers will despise you;

They will seek your life.

³¹“For I have heard a voice as of a woman in ⁸labor,

The anguish as of her who brings forth her first child,

The voice of the daughter of Zion bewailing herself;

She ^qspreads her hands, saying,

‘Woe is me now, for my soul is ⁹weary

Because of murderers!’